Yates Remarries Before Ex-Wife's Retrial

3-18-06 - Rusty Yates remarried Saturday in the church where the funeral for his five children was held and less than two days before his ex-wife's murder retrial was to begin.

Yates married Laura Arnold, 41, during a private ceremony attended by 100 people at Clear Lake Church of Christ, where they met.

The church minister said Yates chose to move on with his life while resisting temptation to pity himself or seek revenge on people who may have wronged him.

"It is easy to judge the actions of another, as though we know all the intricate details of their life story. Jesus has warned us against such judgments," minister Byron Fike said in his prepared statement. He took no questions.

Yates divorced Andrea Yates in March 2005, three years after she was sentenced to life in prison on two murder convictions for drowning her children in a bathtub. An appeals court overturned those convictions based on mistaken testimony by a psychiatrist.

Psychiatrists in her original trial testified Andrea Yates suffered from schizophrenia and postpartum depression, but disagreed over the severity of her illnesses and whether she knew her actions were wrong.

She is again pleading insanity at her retrial. A request to delay the trial until summer is due to be heard before the trial starts Monday.

Rusty Yates returned home from work in June 2001 to learn his wife had drowned their five children. Noah, John, Paul, Luke and Mary, ages 7 years to 6 months, were found laid out on a bed or in the bathtub.

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